


This Could Be Simple

by thebestdayisme



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, College, College AU, Lance (Voltron) is a Mess, M/M, Mutual Pinning, Pining Keith (Voltron), Pining Lance (Voltron), Slow Burn, klance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-30
Updated: 2018-09-06
Packaged: 2019-05-30 20:37:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 16,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15104432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thebestdayisme/pseuds/thebestdayisme
Summary: Lance's roommate is almost exactly what he was afraid of, dark brooding, conspiracy nut...not to mention the ugly mullet. Come on who did he think he was kidding? It's not 1983, you're not Mel Gibson. Was Lance's first year at college really going to be like a bad 90s movie? Hairstyle and all?





	1. Who doesn't have social media?

**Author's Note:**

> ok so this is going to be a college au, Lance and a certain someone will be roommates and antics will ensue. I have no idea what this fic will turn in to so we're on this wild ride together

Lance had checked his room assignment all summer long and the first day that another name showed up next to his he felt confused. He didn’t know this person, and apparently, they didn’t have any social media, red flags when you want a normal roommate and not someone who worships Satan at three a.m.

That would cut into his beauty sleep. 

He even had Hunk check for him. Hunk would be down the hall, it was a shame that they weren’t listed to be roommates together, but Hunk said it had to do with who signed up first. And that meant that Hunk would never be with Lance because of Lance’s poor time managing skills, sure he was always late, but that was endearing, and he challenged anyone to say otherwise. The dorm they were going to be living in was nice, and it was only 2 years old, spacious, 2 sinks, one shared bathroom, a slight area of privacy from his roommate. If anything, the kitchen was right down the hall and he knew that he could convince Hunk to stay up late with him and make cookies at least once a week. He knew that his waistline would kill him, but the freshman 15 happened to everyone.

Hopefully, he would make friends with someone who liked to work out. Oh, even better, maybe there would group work out classes like Zumba or Dance Fitness…  
Right, roommate…that’s what Lance had been obsessing over until he got distracted. ADD is a wild ride. One moment he’s checking on something and then he’s way off to the left. It was worse when he had to take his medicine, he became super focused and quiet. Hunk stuck by his side, but he was also quiet. The two of them both too aware of Lance’s altered state.

Roommate.

Roommate.

Oh, yea, “Hey Hunk?” Lance called to his friend sitting on the ground going through his dresser folding clothes and casually placing them neatly inside a black duffle bag. When Lance was sure he got his attention he continued, “If my roommate tries to kill me in the middle of the night what should I do? I know scream is #1, but like, he had the side closer to the door. Do I run past him and hopefully make it outside before he lunges with his battle ax? Oh God have you seen Jenifer’s Body? What if that happens to me?”

Hunk continues to fold his clothes neatly, only now he’s not focusing as hard, “Yes Lance, you’re Megan Fox and another girl will become obsessed with you until she snaps and kills you.” Hunk zips up the large duffle bag and slides another suitcase towards him, “Lance it’ll be fine, a lot of people don’t have social media. They do it to cleanse themselves, to take a break, or they can’t afford a phone that has room for apps.” Hunk doesn’t reach for more clothes, instead, he leans back and sinks into the side of the mattress, he closes his eyes for a second and there’s a small smile on his face, “You know this is probably the last time we’ll be sitting in this room together like this. I know that we’ll come back, but we’re going to be different people. College students.”

Lance roll over onto his back and lets his head hang off the side of the mattress closest to hunk, “Stressed little babies in debt with potential murderous roommates.”

Hunk shoves his shoulder, causing Lance to slide further off the bed, his face now red from being upside down for too long, “No, remember. I found out who my roommate is going to be. Their Instagram is basically just a log of all the things they have built.”

“Ok, so yours is a huge nerd, even better.”

“I’m a huge nerd too.”

‘Yeah I know and I love you, but I only have so much room in my soul for science and tech talk.”

Hunk laughs and so does Lance. He was right. This was probably the last time that the two of them would be sitting like this in Hunk’s high school bedroom this at ease. Their biggest problem was that Lance had no idea who he would be roommates with. In that moment, life could not get any better than this one moment. 

Two friends side by side, without a care in the world.


	2. ESA

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> it's dorm move in time, and the introduction of one character who will be very prominent in the work. We all know and love her

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ESA is Emotional Support Animals. there are different levels of ESA's and Keith's is basically just one that will be allowed in his room and areas on campus that allow dogs. He cannot bring her to class sadly.

“The way that the American Government treats mental illnesses is ridiculous.” The two brothers sat beside each other in a large leather couch in the dean’s office. Keith had his papers signed by his therapist. He had Thunder vaccinated, trained, and groomed, there was no way that they would not qualify for an on-campus ESA. “Thunder needs to be my emotional support animal. If I have her with me then my sever anger episodes don’t happen as much and anxiety and depression fell manageable.” Keith’s arms are crossed, and he knows that there’s no way that he won’t get approved. He’s just too nervous to think about the unthinkable…what if Thunder can’t come with him?

“Keith,” Shiro put a hand on his shoulder, feeling the way the younger man let some of the tension out of his back, “They’ll let him in, and if not, he can stay at my place until he’s allowed to be with you. I only live 15 minutes away and you don’t have to live in a dorm next year if you don’t have to. We can find you a place that allows dogs and maybe it’ll be close to me.”

“Thank you, Shiro, I just don’t want him to feel like I’m abandoning him. I don’t want him to forget me either.” Keith knew that Thunder would never forget him, they had a bond that was 5 years old. As if a few days a week of no contact could break that bond.

“Maybe you’d even take me up on the offer to come to stay in my extra room. I wouldn’t mind Keith. My roommate graduates in the spring and will be heading back home. I could hold it open for you.” Shiro didn’t look at his brother, they’ve had this talk before.

“I know Shiro, and I appreciate it. And if I hate living with someone random after this year I’ll find a single bedroom apartment, or I’ll move in. I just want some independence right now. I want to be on my own for a bit.” Not that Keith wasn’t always by himself when he was at home with his grandparents. He knew that staying in his room for half of the time was rude, especially when the other half of the time he was at work. 

There’s just so much social interaction that he’s capable of. Every now and then he’ll sit downstairs with his grandma and grandpa. Keith will listen to their stories, help his grandfather repair something that doesn’t need to be fixed, sit in a chair while his grandmother bakes his favorite pie. Keith even watches old movies with them a couple times a couple times a week. He doesn’t mind it, they really are sweet people. People that you would read about in a magazine, friends since childhood, 60 years of marriage, smiles 24/7, and they took in their daughter’s son after she went MIA overseas while serving in the marines. They deserve the world.

“Earth to Keith.” Shiro is waving his hand over Keith’s eyes. “You just zoned out for a few minutes. They just called your name.”

“Oh.” Keith sat still, his hands clenched tight in his lap.

“Do you want me to go in there with you? I don’t have to say anything, I could just sit by and be intimidating if I have to.” Shiro didn’t need any help being intimidating, he was tall, buff, and he had a wide scar across his nose that made him seem scary if you didn’t know him. But if you did then you would know that he was a giant mamma bear, ready to take care of and fight for his cubs at a moment’s notice.

Keith stood up and stretched his back, “Nah, it’s ok. I want to go in there and make my point clear. I want them to understand that Thunder is more than just a dog, she’s a friend with a very important job.”  
-  
The first day of move-in was wild. Lance knew that finding the dorm would be easy enough. He and Hunk had already driven by the place so that they wouldn’t get lost with a car full of junk. But after they found their dorm everything else became a blur. There were peppy people all wearing different colored shirts, Lance remembers someone telling him to find a blue shirt, ok blue. Blue. Blue. Why can’t he find a blue shirt anywhere?

Oh, there one is. “Hello!” he waved his arm over his head while still gripping his giant cart with his other hand. He didn’t want to get separated from all of his things as soon as he   
got closer to moving in.

The woman in blue walked up to him, her hair was silver and he dark skin matched Lance’s, “What floor?” she had an accent, but Lance couldn’t point out from where.  
“Three. Room 3018. I was told to find a blue shirt.”

“Well you found one,” she smiles, and Lance feels a pickup line forming in his head, but he’s interrupted by someone bumping into his cart. He turns around and greeted with a glare from a kid with a mullet. Lance goes to say something to the jerk, but there’s a hand on his arm that reminds him of the cute girl standing beside him. “Anyways we should go up and try to find room on an elevator. But after today I would recommend going up on the stairs. These elevators may be new…but I wouldn’t want to be late to class because one of them decided to stop working randomly. It’s happened before, and I was so mad!” she reached the front entrance and hits a button that swings the doors open. “The closest stairwell to your room is actually just two doors down from you. So, it’s not a long walk. And it’s right next to the laundry room. you’re pretty centrally located. The kitchen is right at the end of the hallway…” his guide trails off as she scans the first-floor hallway for anyone else before letting the elevator closed behind them. The elevator shakes but makes its way up to the third floor. Lance doesn’t mind. He never really rides in them anyways, you don’t have elevators in towns of 300 people.

“Here you are,” she opens a door with a master key and props it open so that Lance can roll his belongings inside. “What was your name?”

“Lance McLain.” He gives her his best charmer smile and leans against the wall, “What’s your name princess?”

The smile on her face drops and she rolls her eyes, “Allura, I’m your Residential Leader. I’m in charge of you. We have a hall meeting in two hours in the kitchen.”

She turns to leave, but Lance can see a smirk on her face.

The door shuts behind her and he looks around the room. Not much to work with, but he can make any place fitting for his superior lifestyle. Lance barely gets a chance to unpack his first bag before the door to his room is opening again. Roommate! Maybe he would see that he was overthinking the crazy roommate. Surely whoever was on the other side of that door would be nice and they would become instant friends. 

However, when the door opened it revealed the same mullet man from outside who had bumped into his cart…and a giant wolf followed behind him.

Oh great.


	3. Alright Mullet Man

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the boys meet and as expected, it doesnt go well

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> honestly the tension in this fic isnt going to be crazy. i just am planning to have a sweet fluff filled fic soon

Keith stared at the person standing on the far side of the room, who seemed to be his own height. “Uh…is that-?”

Keith turned to where Thunder was standing behind him, happily wagging her tail and looking at her owner in question. “This is my ESA dog Thunder. She’s really nice and she’s trained so you don’t have to worry about her making a mess or chewing on shoes.” Keith looked back up at the brunet standing in front of him and saw a smile spread on his face.

“Oh I love dogs!” his excited voice was noticed by Thunder and she started wagging her tail harder and nudged Keith with her nose. He smiled at her and then looked at Lance.

“Housing didn’t tell you that I was going to have a dog?” Housing had finally allowed Thunder to room with him, it was harder than Shiro was willing to admit. Even with his therapist’s note, they wanted to talk to Keith and dig deep into his emotional problems. Once that happened Keith made a desperate look at Shiro through the glass doors and he walked in and demanded to know if everyone gets grilled this thoroughly. 

Lance looked at the dog, who came up to his hips “No, but I didn’t really know what to expect with you anyways. I couldn’t find you on any social media, so I was worried that you would be some sort of serial killer.” Lance looked nervous now, but Keith took the awkward pause and sat down on the empty bed behind him.

Thunder jumped up on the empty bed and laid her head in Keith’s lap, “I don’t have any social media and I don’t plan on having any, they’re just ways for empty people to fill their lives with meaningless crap.” He said it casually so when he looked up and saw the look of shock on his roommates face he felt confused, “What?”

“Social media is a way for people to be connected even if you can’t be near them. Or if you want friends to see what you’ve been doing, catch up to people and even make new friends! The whole point of social media is to be social.”

“You could try actually going and talking to people in person.”

Keith honestly didn’t feel like he said anything wrong, but the look on the other man’s face was sour. “People who hate on social media for flimsy reasons like that don’t understand that some people can’t go talk to some people. They live too far away. People who don’t like social media try to cover it up by saying they’re too cool for it. But it’s just apps on your phone that make you smile. I don’t see anything wrong with being happy. You sound as if social media is what’s wrong with people these days, like a grandpa.   
Except that my grandfather happens to have FaceBook and twitter AND he kills it.” Lance doesn’t know why he’s so worked up over social media, but since the moment that this guy bumped into him in the parking lot, he has grated on his nerves. Who bumps into someone and has the audacity to glare when it was their fault in the first place….and he’s still glaring now.

Mullet man must think that he’s not worth the time of day.

Ok, Lance could be overthinking all of this, and he knows that…in the back of his mind, but’s been a long day and it’s only 4 in the afternoon. He just needs to go see Hunk before he blows up on his roommate and has to endure awkwardly living with him for the rest of the year.  
-  
“I don’t know Shiro. I said something about social media and he got all upset and walked out. And now we have a hall meeting in ten minutes and everyone else will know their roommate and I don’t even know his name. Should I just not go to it?” Keith was sitting on his now made bed and Thunder was sniffing at her new toy, a stuffed lion that Keith had seen at the store last night. He wanted to make sure she was happy in her new home.

Keith heard Shiro sigh on the phone and he felt bad for letting him down, “Keith if you don’t want to go you don’t have to. But you have to make friends, you’ll enjoy yourself more if you have friends. And it’s the first day, of course, both of you are on edge. Two new people, who don’t know anything about each other living together? It’s going to be awkward for a while but you’ll make it work. And if not then there’s always switching rooms. Or we can petition to have you live off campus if that’s what you really want.” Keith knew his brother was just saying anything to make him feel better, and it worked. There were options. He didn’t have to be anxious in his own room. He was paying for it after all. He might as well be comfortable.

What’s the worst that could happen? His roommate could bring 20 people into their room while he was trying to sleep or study, but he doubted that would happen…hopefully. “Thank you, Shiro.”

“I’m surprised this is the first phone call of the day. I was willing to come over and help you set up your room.”

“I know-”

“I know that a lot of kids have family members helping them so you doing this on your own is great, but remember if you need me-”

“Yes, mom. Gotta go, mom, bye mom.”

Keith hung up before his brother could get too emotional. He didn’t need to be having a deep conversation with his brother when his awkward roommate walked back in. If he walked back in.

The clock on his phone said it was a few minutes until the hall meeting. Keith stood up from his bed and Thunder looked at him questioningly. Once Keith had the leash and collar in his hands she jumped off the bed and stood in front of him and calmly allowed him to put it on her. 

Ok, so hall meeting. New people. Probably 30 strangers in a room where he knew one person and they didn’t like him. Ok.

Cool.

“Let’s go,” Keith said aloud, but he didn’t move. Not until he felt Thunder’s tail wagging against his leg.  
-  
The tall silver-haired woman sat in a tall chair and waited for everyone to enter the kitchen. She counted heads as they walked in the door. When Keith had entered she had hopped off of her chair and talked to him before he could reach the rest of the people, “Hello, I’m Allura your RL. I wanted you to know that I live in room 3023. Just a few doors down from you. If you need anything or want to talk I have a board on my door that lets everyone know where I am on campus and I’ll be making a group chat later tonight with everyone’s numbers so I can tell the hall anything important happening in our dorm or on campus.”

“Oh…um, I’m Keith Kogane, I live in room 3018, A side. This is Thunder.” He gestured to his dog. She was standing next to him and watching the rest of the room closely. But   
when Allura bent down to say hello to her she turned her head and started wagging her tail.

“Hello Thunder, you’re a sweet girl. I bet you’re going to be my favorite resident.”

Allura stood back up and told Keith that he wanted to get back to her chair and wait a couple more minutes to see if any stragglers would wander in. Before Keith could even move from the doorway he was run into by someone coming from the hallways. Quickly he turned around to apologize for hogging the entrance when he saw who it was.

But instead of saying ‘I’m sorry’ like a normal human being he said, “couldn’t you see that I was standing here?” nice Keith. Real nice

And when Keith saw who it was he wished that he could just drop out of college. “Well, maybe you shouldn’t be blocking the doorway mullet man.” His roommate stood there with his arms crossed over his chest and a glare on his face.

“Mullet man?” That really shouldn’t be the question you ask Keith, he was doing great today.

When a hand was offered to him he looked away from Lance and noticed that there was someone else there with his roommate. A man who was just as tall as he was wife and a large smile was spread across his face. He looked like someone who made friends easily, “Hello, sorry for him. I’m Hunk, Lance’s friend who usually keeps him from being too rude.”

“Me? Rude?!” Lance, which was his roommates' name Keith figured, looked shocked. “I am never rude.”

Hunk just smiled softly and put a hand on Lance’s shoulder, “What was your name?” he asked Keith.

“Oh.” Keith was taken aback by the nice gushing from this guy. He might even be nicer than Shiro. “Keith. I’m uh, sorry that we didn’t get introduced earlier. I don’t make good first impressions.” He felt awkward saying it, but Shiro told him he was horrible at socializing and one key to talking with people was being honest and if they accepted you then great.

This didn’t feel great.

“I’ll say.” Lance murmured.

“I’m sorry?”

“You practically bashed my livelihood. Social media is very important to me.” Lance still looked like he wasn’t ready to speak to Keith in a nice manner, so to escape Keith looked   
desperately around the room.

“I’m going over here.” That wasn’t an excuse, he just left them and sat quietly by himself while Allura started the meeting. A few people tried to talk to him because of Thunder, but he absent-mindedly blew them off. 

When the meeting was over he quickly went back to his room, staying long enough to write his phone number on the sheet of paper for Allura’s group message. He wasn’t sure   
how that would work with his flip phone but it wasn’t a big concern of his.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> why would keith have anything but a flip phone? fight me on this is. I swear i'll win  
> also comments are always appreciated. Let me know if you like this!


	4. Keith is an artist confirmed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the boys start to click, they get their rooms in order and Shiro comes into the picture

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i told you this is going to be fluff

When Lance opened the door to his room he saw his roommate the mullet man slowly unpacking a duffle bag. He pulled out a dark shirt after dark shirt. “Do you only wear dark colors?” Lance said as the door shut behind him. Hunk said that he wanted to unpack a little more before dinner. They were going out together to celebrate their first night at college.

Keith turned to face Lance, then back at the pile of neatly folded clothes on his bed. “I get most of my stuff from my older brother, Walmart, or the Salvation Army.”

“Ok ok, but those places have color. You have a nice skin color. I bet you would look good in…maybe a dark green.”

Keith turned his back to Lance and shrugged his shoulders, “I don’t know if I own anything that is dark green.”

“Well, I do. I own every color because I look good in every color. Trust me.” Lance rolled his shoulders and let the hoodie he was wearing fall onto the ground. “Hey uh…” he felt something in his chest. He should apologize for earlier. They should start fresh and-

“Excuse me,” Keith muttered and quickly ran into the bathroom.

Oh. Well, no fresh start right now.

Lance turned to look at Thunder sitting quietly on the ground beneath Keith’s bed, “Did I do something wrong?” In answer, she lifted up her head and then laid down with a bored look in her eyes. “Helpful.”  
-  
Keith doesn’t know why he ran into the bathroom. Surely this seems rude. The guy was just being nice, and they were having a conversation. They could have been friends. Did he mess it up again? 

“Breathe Kogane.”

He took a deep breath and looked at himself in the mirror, the blush he felt from earlier had disappeared. Thankfully. He didn’t want to explain to his roommate, a guy who he barely knows, that his gay ass blushes crazily whenever a cute guy gives him a compliment. He can’t help it. If he told Lance he might be grossed out, maybe even want to switch rooms.

Finally, Keith got his thinking in order and quickly opened the door back up into their bedroom. “Oh hey man I was wondering. When do you shower?” Lance was sitting on his bed lazily throwing clothes into his dresser, not even bothering to make sure they are folded properly.

Maybe he would fix it later. “I typically do that in the morning after I go running.”

“Ohhh, what time do you run? I promised myself that if I found someone fit I would try and work out too. I’m getting kind of flabby.” Lance smiled and tossed another shirt into his dresser.

“Well I try for 5 a.m. but if that bothers you I can do 6.”

The smile on Lance’s face dropped. “I knew there was a 5 a.m. but I didn’t know people actually were active then. How is that possible?” Keith didn’t answer so Lance continued, “I’ll probably go to the gym in the evening anyway. I shower at night.” He tossed another shirt, missing this time. Keith noticed that there was a small pile of shirts on the ground. 

“That’s why I was asking. I have a pretty complex skin care routine and I was wondering if we were going to clash for bathroom time. Hunk says I can get pretty caught up.”

“I don’t mind. As long as I can use the restroom whenever I’m fine.”

“And here I thought we weren’t going to get along.”

Lance smiled and for the first time that day Keith smiled back. It felt nice for all of two seconds until there was a knocking at the door. Lance offered to get it, saying that it was probably Hunk who was a genius, organizational master. He was probably already unpacked; however, when Lance opened the door he was left speechless.

“Did I get the room right?” a voice muttered from the hallways and Keith felt his face grow hot.

He got up from his spot and walked up behind Lance, “Shiro I told you ten times, you didn’t have to come by today.”

“I know that, but I wanted to make sure my baby bro was making himself at home and not hiding in a closet or picking fights.”

“Hold up.” Came Lance’s voice from right in front of Keith. “Baby bro? This hunk of man is your brother you mentioned?”

“Aw, you mentioned me?”

“I said you were a nosey piece of shit who has no life outside of me.”

There was a smile shared between roommate and brother and Lance let Shiro in. “I’m Lance by the way.”

“Nice to meet you, I’m Keith’s older brother Shiro.”

Lance and Shiro talked while Keith finished putting his clothes away. He didn’t mind the distracted Shiro, it meant less “Are you sure you’re ok here?” talk. Honestly, Keith was fine he could handle himself. He’s been in way worse situations before. It’s not like he would have a meltdown on the first day.

When Keith managed to sit completely empty out thethree duffle bags he looked at his room and felt accomplished, until Lance spoke up, “Where’s the rest of your stuff? Decorations, Knick knacks, ect.?”

“That’s my fault actually. I was supposed to drop that off with him this morning but I completely forgot.”

“And you forgot right now. You came over here and still didn’t bring my things over.”

Shiro walked over to Keith’s bed and sat down on it, the small bed looking even smaller with his large frame looming over it. “It’s ok. I live ten minutes away, you can grab it on the way back from dinner.”

“Dinner?” both Keith and Lance asked. 

Shiro nodded, “Yea I was going to take you out tonight to celebrate you getting into college and living on your own. And I was even going to pay.”

“Shiro-”

“I’ll take you to your favorite restaurant here.”

Lance raised his hand, which earned him a surprised look from Shiro and Keith, “I was actually going to google search the restaurants in town but if you’re a local I would love to hear what’s good. My friend is kind of a food snob. He says nothing compares to his cooking.”

There was a knock at the door again and this time Lance swore that it had to be Hunk. It was, and introductions were made. And then recommendations are given. Shiro even offered for all four of them to go eat together but Lance declined. Keith tried to not be too openly relieved by this, but he knew that he would enjoy tonight if it was just him and his brother, and free food.

Later that night when he got back to his room, two more duffle bags in hand he saw that Lance was still out with Hunk. 

So Keith pulled out his speaker and plugged his iPod in and began to play his music. Once Keith had set up Thunder’s bed she quickly laid down on it and watched him move back and forth in the small room.

Keith didn’t so much as have posters, he had drawings. Things that he had seen in his dreams or imagination. He wanted to capture his thoughts. Some were clear and recognizable. A wolf, clearly Thunder in all her glory, another was a desert landscape, he thinks it’s somewhere in Texas…but others were less than shapes, merely color thrown together. Sketches that were never quiet finished, but complete. He didn’t know if he liked any of his artwork, but he knew that he wanted them hung up. If only for himself.

His other decorations were smaller. School supplies, a bigfoot figurine, and a couple books. Once he had everything arranged he felt complete.

Lance still wasn’t back by midnight, they must be partying it up. Keith only hoped that he wouldn’t come back loud and wake him up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading this, i love all of you


	5. Day 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance and Keith spend their first night together in the dorm with only a minor incident

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> what the fluff, i bet Keith would do that challenge with Thunder and she would go crazy

Lance shuffled into his room a little past one a.m. and quickly shut the door when he realized all the light was out in his and Keith’s room. Hunk was right, he should have gone back to his own room hours ago. But Hunk’s roommate was hilarious, if a little rude, and to be honest Lance loved those kinds of people. They were great to hang out with, and he wanted to give Keith time to get used to his room alone. He seemed like the type who needed their space. At first, Lance thought he was just going to be rude and quiet, but when he was talking to Shiro earlier Lance noticed a softness in his shoulders that hadn’t been there earlier.

Lance groped the wall as he made his way to the bathroom, still not familiar with the layout of the room. He thought he was going well until he kicked something metal which made a loud bang. And if that hadn’t woken Keith up, the yelp that escaped his lips certainly did.

A light flickered on next to Keith’s bed and lance froze in a crouch position, eyes wide like a deer caught in headlights.

“Lance?” Keith’s voice was rough and instantly Thunder jumped onto his bed and put her head on his stomach. She had a look of disdain for Lance.

Lance stood up and rubbed the back of his neck, “I thought I could silently sneak in here without waking you up. I’m so sorry. I didn’t see that you put a trash can out.” Lance bent down to put the wire bin back in its spot.

“It’s ok,” Keith mumbled and twisted onto his side, one arm propped up and holding his head. Long hair falling into half lidded eyes. “What time is it?”

Keith yawned and Lance felt guilt in the pit of his stomach, “Uh, 1:30.”

“Oh, it’s not that late. Do you want me to leave this light on for you?” his voice was soft, the light from his lamp casting shadows around the room and falling over his bed.

Lance looked away, a blush creeping up his neck, “No. I have a lamp on my side, that way the light won’t be directly next to you and Thunder.”  
Lance went to flick on his light next to his bed and Keith turned his off. There was the sound of movement and Keith said something, but Lance thought it was meant for Thunder, so he crept back onto Keith’s side aiming for the bathroom. “Lance?” more shifting, “Don’t forget your skin care routine.” And with that Keith started lightly snoring.  
-  
A few hours later when Keith woke up for his run he made sure to get dressed in the bathroom so that he wouldn’t wake Lance up. Early morning work outs would be different with a roommate. He couldn’t stretch in his room before heading outside. 

Oh well, it was still August and the mornings weren’t cold yet. 

Thunder didn’t like her new surroundings. She wouldn’t leave Keith’s side for more than a minute. Normally she would run and inspect every blade of grass, tree, or strange object that crossed their path. She seemed to be on high alert on their new running path.

Keith wasn’t sure how long his new route was so he made sure and set a timer on his phone. No point in running longer than necessary, especially since he was so tired this morning, and it wasn’t because he was woken up at night. 

Moving had drained him.

When he made it back to his dorm an hour later Keith was covered in sweat, but he couldn’t make himself go into the building just yet. So he sat down at the base of the stairs and watched as the sun rose over the trees at the edge of the parking lot. He could see the building that Shiro pointed out to him, the fine arts center, and behind it was supposed to be the humanities building. His classes were only a fourth of a mile walk, nothing to worry about. 

There was one person in the lobby, the same girl who was there when he left. She smiled at him from behind the front desk and he nodded back at her before opening the stairwell door.

Lance was still asleep when he got back to the room, but to be fair it was before 7 and he didn’t seem the type to wake up early.

It was ten a.m. when Keith finally saw the mass of blankets stir on the other side of the room. He looked up from his desk and saw an arm reach out from under the comforter and blindly search for something until stopping and ripping his phone off of the charger and into the void of blankets.

Thirty minutes later Lance finally emerged, looking like death. The smile he was wearing all day yesterday was gone, replaced with an expressionless zombie-like state. He muttered something and went directly into the bathroom only to emerge like a ray of sunshine.

The change was drastic, Keith doesn’t know what happened in there but every fiber of Lance’s being seemed perky and awake, and smelled like flowers.

“Good morning roommie!” Lance chimed and pulled his blinds open, revealing the bright morning sunlight. The sunlight also revealed the mess of clothes and suitcases still on the ground, but Lance didn’t seem to notice this. “What kind of meal plan do you have?”

Keith scrunched his nose and thought. He wasn’t sure so he pulled out his phone and texted Shiro, he was the one who helped him pick everything out anyways, he had already graduated and knew what the best deals were. there was a ding and he glanced at his phone, “10 meals a week and $1,000 dining dollars.” He turned to face Lance and leaned back in his chair, drawing on his desk forgotten for now. “Why?”

“I’m hungry and Hunk wants to head to breakfast, brunch, lunch. Want to come?” 

There was a twist in his stomach and he knew that he would have to hang out with his roommate at least once. It would be better to get it out of the way early so that if they didn’t click then they could just be casual in the room. “Sure.” Keith stood up from his desk and Thunder listed her head questioningly. He patted her head and she laid back down and wait for him to get her leash. She was such a good dog. “Do they let ESA’s in the dining hall?” Keith asked.

Lance shrugged, “One way to find out.” Lance didn’t take long to get ready, he threw on a pair of jeans that were on the floor, assuring Keith that they were clean, just not put up yet, and grabbed a shirt from a suitcase before tossing it aside in favor of another shirt almost exactly the same as the first.

The knock at the door startled Keith but he hid it with a glare. Lance walked past him and put a hand on his shoulder, “Don’t worry. I just told Hunk and his roommate that we were ready.”

Keith grabbed Thunder’s leash and walked to their door, holding it open so that she could run out first.

Keith wasn’t expecting a high-pitched squeal.

At all.

Honestly, it startled him so much that he took a step back and the door swung back open.

When he stepped back forward he saw who made the noise. A tiny person with a mange of wild hair and big round glasses. Thunder almost came up to their shoulders. “Oh my God Hunk. You didn’t say there would be a dog!” so that must be Hunk’s roommate.

“Yea that’s my roommate’s ESA,” Lance said casually. He leaned against the wall and enjoyed the way he said ‘my roommate’ because at the moment his roommate was the cool   
one.

“Her name is Thunder,” Keith said. His voice came out ruder than he had intended it and instantly looked away. When he looked back the small person didn’t seem to mind. They drew their attention away from Thunder long enough to glance at Keith, “The name is Pidge, they/them pronouns.”

“Keith.”

“Ok now that introductions are over can we eat yet? I’m starving!” Hunk whined.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pidge!


	6. Never Rile Up A Seething Gremlin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge and Keith have a bonding moment and Lance is issued a death threat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok i know that my chapters are short and this is a very slow build but come on...who doesnt love slow build ups to romance? and tragic keith...my boy

The dining hall was nearly empty when the four of them walked in, the bored looking girl not even saying anything about Thunder, but the food wasn’t as good as they remembered it being at orientation.

After lunch Keith expected them to go back to their individual rooms, but when Lance said that he wasn’t done unpacking Hunk volunteered to come over and help. That’s how Keith ended up sharing his bed with Pidge, who had made a pit stop to grab their computer. They were both sitting with their backs against the wall so that they didn’t have to get too close to each other. Hunk and Lance were talking loudly, but Keith had tuned them out after the first five minutes. They just argued about how to organize Lance’s room.

Keith didn’t care, he hadn’t even moved any of his furniture around. 

“Why would you move stuff around? That just creates extra work.” Pidge mumbled.

Keith looked up and saw them staring at him, “I didn’t even bother, it’s not too big of a deal what goes where it gets the job done.”

“Exactly.”

They didn’t say anything else to each other for a while until they both looked up at the lack of noise in the room. But when they looked up they didn’t see Lance or Hunk…or Lance’s bed in fact.

“What?” they both said at the same time.  
-  
The first week of classes went by quickly, mostly because the professors wanted to get through syllabus day and make sure everyone had a rough understanding of how the class would work. Tests, pop quizzes, short essays, nothing too hard for Keith, he was just taking all of his freshman level courses, so he didn’t expect anything too hard his first semester. What was going to be hard was finding the courage to maybe talk to someone in his class. 

Thunder wasn’t an ESA that was allowed in classes, so he couldn’t even use her as a launching topic. Everyone loved dogs, especially large, furry, lazy dogs like Thunder. Keith was just coming back from his last class of the week when he saw Hunk, Pidge, and Lance all walking his direction laughing together. They didn’t notice him at first, instead too absorbed by each other’s company to really notice anyone besides themselves.

Keith didn’t want to make them stop their conversation, so he kept his head down hoping that they would pass his by. And also hoping that they would stop and talk to him. It wasn’t until after the trio had passed him that Keith heard an exclamation from one of them. And then his name was being called out very loudly. He cringed at how loud it was and the possible attention that could be drawn from it.

“Mullet boy!” oh great it was Lance calling out for him.

“Keith!” Hunk called out next, followed by a short whistle which he assumed was Pidge.

Keith slowly turned around, as if acknowledging them was dangerous. “Hello.”

Lance skipped back to where Keith was standing, hands clutching his messenger bag, back a little bent and eyes downcast, “We were just about to go to the park and play frisbee or maybe just enjoy the weather. You have to come!” Keith felt something in his chest and didn’t know what it meant.

“I’d have to go get Thunder from our room. She would like to come with us.”

Pidge’s eyes lit up and suddenly they were right next to him, “Can I come with you? She’s such a pretty dog and I would love to spend more time with her.”

Keith hadn’t seem them this excited at all and he felt that maybe they only like him because of Thunder…but at least someone was asking to hang out with him. Shiro would be so proud. “Uh, sure.”

Pidge and Keith didn’t have to go far, when he had passed the small group they had only left their dorm maybe by 200 yards. Lance and Hunk said that they would stay and sit under a tree. Hunk’s bag on his should was heavy.

Keith wondered what could have been in the bag if it was already too heavy for him to carry anymore.

When Keith and Pidge made it up to his room, Pidge held back and let Keith go into the room first, suddenly a lot less excited about Thunder than they had been a couple minutes ago. Keith felt awkward, “Um, you ok?” he asked because he didn’t know what else to do.

“Well yea.” Pidge said as Keith leaned down under his bed to wake up Thunder who had been taking a nap. He said something to her and she instantly perked up. Jumping up and running out from under the bed and directly in front off Keith. “I was just wondering…what exactly is wrong with you that you need an ESA.”

Oh. Wow. Way to be blunt. But when Keith looked into their face they didn’t seem to be asking out of pity, or to belittle him. They just seemed genuinely curious. He felt self-conscious and decided not to answer immediately. Instead, he found Thunder’s leash and ball, next he found a pack of treats and put he things into a small bag, ditching his backpack and jacket on his bed. Not even bothering to put them in the right places, Lance was wearing off on him.

“Don’t tell the others, not yet. I’ll tell them if they ask…but for now…” he trailed off and looked at Thunder, all ready to go and eagerly waiting on him to make the first move. “My mother was an astronaut and died on a mission, my father died four years later. I was five. I stayed in foster care until I was 14 and a family finally adopted me, but I wasn’t always in the best situations and homes, so I have really bad anxiety, abandonment issues, and some other stuff I don’t want to go into right now…but yeah. That’s what’s wrong with me.” Keith nodded that he was ready to go and Pidge opened the door and waited for Keith to follow. “I’m fine most of the time, but I have really bad social anxiety so I don’t make friends well and I can’t really talk to people, or if I do talk to someone it’s usually word vomit.” Keith realized that’s what was happening right now, “I feel like I have no control over my life but with Thunder…she depends on me, she doesn’t leave, and she loves me. She helps.” 

Keith finally managed to shout his mouth and proceeded to turn bright red. The walk down the stairs was quiet, and Keith was sure that it was awkward, until he heard Pidge take a breath, “It’s alright to want control in your life. Everyone is seeking control. Hell I even built two robots last year when I realized I couldn’t settle on one design, so I built them both.”

Keith nodded, slowly.

Pidge opened the door at the bottom of the stairwell, Keith was glad to see that the hallway was empty, “I won’t tell Hunk or Lance, and I know that I just met them, but I also just met you too. And to be honest I can tell a lot about them very easily. They both are such open books. So I think if they knew this about you it wouldn’t change their opinions on you. It would probably help you even. Hunk seems like the kind to do anything he can to make someone comfortable. He even bought a curtain rod and a curtain so that we could have basically our own rooms.”

Keith thought for a moment, the bright sunlight from outside making him squint his eyes. “Hunk does kind of seem like a giant protective teddy bear.”  
“And him and Lance have been best friends for years, Lance probably-”

“Lance probably what?” a voice echoed right behind Keith and Pidge and Pidge screamed in a very high pitched voice and jumped practically into Keith, their arms clutching at the fabric of his grey shirt.

“LANCE WILL PROBABLY GO MISSING IF HE EVER DOES THAT AGAIN!” Pidge shouts, making Keith wince. “Don’t ever do that again.” This time when Pidge issued the threat Hunk came up and moved Lance further away from the seething gremlin.

Keith felt himself smile in spit of himself. He had known that Lance was right behind them, had noticed it as soon as they had exited the building. He probably should have told Pidge, but it had been more fun this way. Keith was beginning to think that maybe these three would be ok. Maybe they could even be friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pidge could kill a man if they wanted to and get away with it


	7. early mornings spent on the floor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith goes for a run and comes back to meet Lance's mother

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> seriously this fic is just a slow build with a lot of potential fluff

That Sunday Keith was sitting at his desk staring at an unfinished drawing, unsure of how he wanted to continue. This is why so many of his drawings aren’t finished. Keith can’t ever make himself complete a drawing if he loses interest or motivation.

But this time he has to finish it. Hunk had seen his drawings on Friday after they came back from the park and his interest was so pure and proud that Keith told him that he would draw something for him, and then Pidge had demanded something drawn for them. 

Surprisingly Lance hadn’t asked for anything, but he might not have been paying attention. He had been sitting on the ground, beside Keith’s bed, and was idly brushing Thunder’s fur. Keith hadn’t asked him to do it. Lance just saw that her fur was wild and he sat down without a word.

That was the strange part. Lance hadn’t been talking.

The drawing that Keith was making for Hunk and Pidge wasn’t anything special, it was out of one of his journals so it would be bigger than a normal sheet of paper, but it wasn’t Keith’s best work…and he hated it.

Technically Keith never agreed to draw them anything, just awkwardly standing there while Hunk gazed at all of his drawings.

Keith didn’t even know what to draw for Hunk…what does Hunk even like besides everything?

Keith grabbed the sheet of paper in front of him and started to crumple it into a ball when he heard a gasp from the other side of the room. “What are you doing?”

Lance, who had been laying down on his bed, scrolling though all of his social media for the past hour and half was now standing next to his closet with a confused look on his face, “I uh, didn’t like it.”

“Let me see.” Keith didn’t have any time to say anything before Lance was standing right next to him, granted it was a small room…but Keith’s face flushed when Lance’s hip bumped into his shoulder. Lance didn’t seem to notice. “Well…I guess you have a point.”

“I guess I don’t have any inspiration right now.”

“Is this for class or are you just bored?”

Lance still held the crumpled unfinished drawing in his hands, but instead of going back to his side he moved so that he could lean against the side of Keith’s bed. “Well, Hunk had said-”

“You’re drawing something for Hunk! Why Hunk?”

Keith knit his brows together and grabbed his drawing back from Lance only to crumple it into a ball once again, “Because he asked me to.”

“Oh. That’s awesome!” Lance smiled at Keith and he wondered if the chicken he had for dinner had been good. His insides were fluttering like crazy. “Hunk would absolutely love anything you made for him…” he looked at the ball of paper, “Maybe.”

“Just don’t tell him, I don’t even know if I’ll be able to do it so don’t get his hopes up Lance.”

There was a slight discoloration on Lance’s cheeks, maybe it was warm in the room. “I won’t.” he held out a pinky to Keith and Keith reached out cautiously, “Pinky promise dude.”  
Keith could have sworn that it was almost too hot in their room.  
-  
The next day was Monday and Keith didn’t have class until ten a.m. but he still woke up at six for his morning run. He didn’t bother to look at where Lance was sleeping, he could tell by the soft snoring that came from the general direction. Quickly he and Thunder were out of the door before Lance could wake up from the light coming from the bathroom. 

His morning runs were getting easier to pace, Keith knew the area well enough by now to know where to turn around when he reached his mile markers. Today would be eight miles. His hardest day, he always made the worst day Monday so that the rest of the week seemed like a breeze. Eight miles generally takes 50-60 minutes, depending on Thunder’s motivation. Keith never likes to push her too much, and sometimes he’ll leave her at home if he’s feeling like going longer or faster. But she seems to enjoy his morning runs and it keeps her healthy so it’s not too bad.

Keith likes to give her a big treat on Mondays to make up for the long run too. Shiro says that she’s spoiled, and maybe he’s right. But what’s wrong with spoiling a dog? Nothing.  
When Keith gets back to the dorm he notices the same girl sitting in the lobby as always, and sees her mouth moving, but his earphones are too loud to hear what she’s saying. He quickly pulls one out and walks closer to her, “I’m sorry I didn’t catch that.”

Gosh he sounds too formal. It’s only seven in the morning…

“I was just wondering how much you run everyday. You seem to come in at different times. You must be in really good shape.” Her voice was soft and he felt himself getting stiff and awkward.

Keith placed one hand on the back of his neck and shrugged, “I change it up everyday. Mondays are eight miles, and the rest of the week I take a mile off each day. Sundays I don’t run at all.” She smiled at him and leaned forward, her blazer was the school color and her nametag said Nyma.

“Wow! And here I am struggling to do one mile.”

“At least you do it. That’s what counts. Everyone is different, running clears my head.”

Keith was ready to leave, but before he could open the stairwell door Nyma said one last thing, “Well maybe if I get in shape we can go running together.” Keith felt himself tense up and said something over his shoulder before hurriedly opening the door and running up the three flights of stairs to his dorm.

Lance wasn’t asleep when Keith got back to the room.

Keith could tell that he was on the phone, but he was surprised to see that Lance seemed to video calling someone instead of just a voice call…Shiro had told him that phones do that…weird.

Lance was speaking in rapid fire Spanish so Keith didn’t have to worry about eavesdropping, but he tried to avoid getting Lance’s attention. He didn’t want to interrupt what could only be a family call.

When Keith got out of the shower he heard Lance still on the phone. When he stepped out of the bathroom he was surprised to see Lance sitting on Keith’s side of the room, petting Thunder who was happily laying down half in Lance’s lap.

“Keith! my mom saw Thunder in the background and demanded that I show her to her. Is that ok?” Lance looked up, his face to open and vulnerable, and pure.

“Sure, she seems to be enjoying herself.” Keith nudged her with his foot as he walked behind Lance to grab a shirt from his dresser.

“Is that your roommate?” Keith heard a voice from the phone, a woman’s voice with a thick Hispanic accent. “Keith?”

Keith froze, with a shirt halfway over his shoulders, slowly he pulled his shirt the rest of the way down, grateful that he had taken a pair of sweats into the bathroom. Lance didn’t stand up, only tilted his phone so that Keith was the main focus in the small screen above an older woman’s face. She must be Lance’s mother. “Yeah, Keith Kogane, dog lover, artist, early morning runner, and mullet boy.” There was a smile in Lance’s voice, with no real heat when he said mullet…progress.

“Hello Mrs. McClain.” Keith said awkwardly, raising his hand to smile

“You’re look too skinny,” Keith felt a hand on his wrist and a tug, so he sat down next to Lance, Thunder moving enough to lay on Keith’s right side, “do you eat?” Lance laughed.  
“Mamma, he runs every morning, that’s why he wasn’t here when you called.”

“Do you want me to send food?”

“I’m not sure if you could send food from Cuba Mamma.”

Keith looked at Lance, shock on his face, “You’re from Cuba?”

Lance nodded and glanced away from his phone to look at his roommate, “I did a foreign exchange program and ended up just staying on a student visa. I might become a citizen at some point, but I don’t know if I could leave Cuba forever. Not with all of my family still there, and the food. Mamma way to tempt me!” he said the last part into the screen, feigning distress and his mother laughed, a similar laugh to Lance’s.

Lance’s mom looked over the screen and then there was a loud scream off screen. She looked back at Lance, an annoyed look on her face. “Mijo, I have to go, Marco and Luis are being-” she then started speaking Spanish, but Keith was pretty sure he could understand from context what she was calling Marco and Luis…whoever they were.

“Adios mi amore!” she called to Lance, “Nice to meet you Keith, eat more.”

Keith laughed and waved goodbye to her before she hung up the phone with a yell already coming out of her mouth. “She seemed nice.”

“You don’t even know the half of it, my mother is a Saint, sometimes she gets angry, but with me, Marco, Luis, and Veronica…I don’t blame her. Not to mention we’re all like our dad, so she has a lot to deal with.”

“So you have two brothers and a sister?” Keith asked, unsure how else to keep the conversation going. He wasn’t even sure is Lance wanted to keep the conversation going, but he seemed eager to talk about his family.

“And mi abuela, she’s terrifying and I love her. She lives with us. And we have goats, chickens, and a cow named Kaltenecker.”

“Who names a cow Kaltenecker?” Keith laughed, and Lance shot him an indignant look.

“Excuse you but who names a dog Thunder?”

“Fair.”

Lance shoved Keith with his shoulder, they were still sitting next to each other on the floor, “Sorry for bothering you. I wasn’t sure when you would be back and my mom called me because she misses me and she has more free time in the morning before my brothers and sister wake up.” Lance looked dreamy, “I mostly see them through social media, keeping up with the family on Facebook, my sister on Instagram, and my brothers have SnapChat.”

Keith felt himself go red as he remembered move in day and his comment about the stupid uses of social media. “I bet it’s nice when you get to call them like just now.”

“You wouldn’t believe it! I haven’t been home since last summer, because airplane tickets were so expensive during Christmas and Hunk let me stay with him. It’s so hard not getting to see your family, you know?”

Sure Lance was just talking about his family, and assuming that Keith must have more than Shiro, but his stomach clenched and he gripped the fabric of his pant legs tighter then he meant to. He could feel his fingernails digging into his palms through the fabric. 

Family. 

That’s something Keith could understand missing. 

In fact he still had a secret hope that his mother was out there, somewhere.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm here for boring everyday klance, get on board people


	8. Oh God Keith was Screwed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in which Keith realizes that he needs a new phone and has a deeper realization

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i have no idea where this fic is going  
> we're all going to be surprised on his this turns out. Normally I lay out a plot line but this time it's a free for all.

Keith was sitting in class trying really hard to focus on the lecture. It was just his college algebra class, an easy A, but his phone kept buzzing in his pocket every few seconds. He was starting to regret giving Lance his phone number; sure, he had to have his roommates number in case of an emergency, but Lance had given Keith’s number to Pidge and Hunk. AND his phone didn’t do normal group chats, so the one he was in with them was just a mess to try and figure out. Eventually, Hunk felt bad and would just send him a separate message of what was going on. 

Lance didn’t seem to mind that Keith didn’t text him back as much as Lance texted. It was probably because no one could text as much as Lance.  
His phone buzzed in rapid succession and Keith for a brief moment considered getting a new smartphone, just so he could actually understand everything these three were talking about.

His instructor pointed at the white board and Keith briefly noticed that there were page numbers and question numbers written down with a date next to it. He glanced at the person next to him and saw that that was indeed the new assignment. After that Keith tuned out completely. 

After class Keith waited until he was in the hall, and out of the way to check his phone, noticing that Lance had sent over 50 messages, Pidge sent 20, and Hunk sent 25.   
How does Lance even find time to text, Keith was pretty sure he had class the same time as him: yet, his phone was always buzzing.

The messages from Lance always contained more letters than necessary “Yesssss” or “OMG HOW DID YOU KNOWW?” always over the top and extremely Lance.

The messages from Pidge were always short and to the point unless they were the ones leading the conversation about something they liked, last time it had been Grade B syfy movies from the early 70s.

And the messages from Hunk were always like his real voice, soft, considerate, and helpful.

Keith liked the messages from Hunk the best. But as he scrolled through his messages he saw three from Shiro, which isn’t weird, but Shiro never sent more than one at a time unless it was urgent. 

Ignoring the other’s messages, he pressed call next to his brother’s name and waited for him to pick up. When he did there was noise in the background that meant he wasn’t at home. “What did you need?”

“Well hello to you too dear brother.” Shiro sounded a little upset.

“Hello.” Keith said in a small voice. 

The noise behind Shiro got quieter and Keith assumed that he had left the area that he had been standing in. “I was going through bills and realized that since you didn’t text before…your old plan was fine.” Keith forgot that he had never changed plans since he got a phone. He still had limited texting. Keith muttered a quiet ‘fuck’ into his phone and started walking outside to the dining hall. “We have to change plans.”

“I don’t even text, I just receive texts.” From Lance.

“I know, but when we change plans you have to get a new phone.” Shiro said this with a smile in his voice, “I’m going to get you a new phone, one that is made for the modern age.”

“Shiro you don’t have to do that.” Keith looked around and saw that the swell of people around him had grown and he really wished that he was with someone he knew right now; but talking on the phone seemed to help some. “I can help you pay for it.”

“Damn right you’re going to help pay for it.” Shiro laughed in the phone and Keith smiled a bit before ducking behind a campus car as it pulled out into a parking lot and switched his direction. The dining hall would be too busy right now anyways. He could always grab lunch later. “You’re going to come over once a week and help me cook dinner and we’ll see if I can get you a job at the campus rec with me.”

“Thanks Shiro.”  
-  
Keith walked into his room expecting Lance to be gone to class or out getting lunch, but Keith was sitting on his bed with Hunk. They stopped talking abruptly when Keith let the door close behind him. 

He tried to tell himself it wasn’t because of him, it was because they were probably having a private conversation. Probably.  
Thunder perked up from her bed and came to greet him by licking his hand and wagging her tail, “Hey girl.” Keith said softly and smiled down at her while consciously not looking at the two people also in his room, that was until he heard Hunk clear his throat. 

Keith looked up to see Lance staring at the wall and Hunk with a bright red face, “So Keith, what, uh, what are you doing back so early. I thought you had class until two?”

Wait was he supposed to know their schedules? “I have an hour off for lunch, but the dining hall seemed too crowded right now. I thought about just relaxing here for a bit, but if y’all need to talk I don’t mind walking to the library, it’s right next to my next class anyways.” He genuinely didn’t mind. In fact, he probably would have preferred it so that he didn’t feel so awkward in his own room.

Lance looked away from the wall, his face looked flushed and Keith tried not to think about how it made his eyes stand out more, “No no it’s fine. Hunk and I were just…uh…-”  
“He was telling me an embarrassing story and I have already promised not to tell.” Hunk finished for him. Hunk winked and Lance flushed even more.

“Hunk!” Hunk laughed and Keith felt some of the tension leave his shoulders, but not completely. Lance felt Keith’s eyes on him and quickly changed the subject, “So, are you just going to skip lunch completely today?” he asked Keith in a not so steady voice.

Keith shrugged and sat his back pack down and pulled his desk chair over to Lance’s side so that he could talk to both of them easily. “Maybe, I might eat after my last class but that’s too close to dinner.”

Hunk got up without saying anything and left the room. Keith didn’t know what he did wrong, that is, until Lance started laughing. “He’s such the mom friend. Hunk went to get you a snack from his room.” Keith noticed that Hunk had deadbolted the door when he left, so that he could easily get back in. it was something that had started after Pidge got locked out of a group movie night. They were not happy.

“He doesn’t have to-”

“Oh he knows he doesn’t have to.” Lance cut him off, “But Hunk wants his friends to take care of themselves and he helps in any way possible. Like a big momma bear.”  
Keith felt himself flush and when he looked up he caught Lance’s eyes on him, “Lance-”

Hunk walked back in the room, hands full of snacks and protein bars for Keith, “No friend of mine will go without eating. Not when it’s Tuesday.”

“What does Tuesday have to do with it?” Keith asked, a smile on his face.

“You ran five miles this morning right?” Hunk said like it was obvious. 

Shit was he really supposed to know these people’s schedules? “Yes, but I had a shake afterwards.” Keith felt a paw on his leg and looked down at Thunder, he scratched her head absently mindedly.

After Keith picked out his snack from Hunk, he threw one at Lance before saying that he had stuff to do in his room before class, leaving the two roommates in their room alone. 

Which was normal. 

So why did Lance get stuttery and bright red when Keith tried to continue talking to him? 

Keith wasn’t sure if he did something to upset him. But he did know that Lance was cute when he wasn’t showing all of his bravado. 

Yeah, Lance was cute.

Oh God Keith was screwed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> as always thank you for reading. whenever i see that people are actually reading this I get so excited. I love you all


	9. Oh God Lance was Screwed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A short chapter from the perspective of Lance and his inner monologue at his discovery of feelings for Keith...but what are these feelings?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've wanted to do a chapter from Lance's perspective again and it only took me 8 chapters

Oh God Lance was screwed.

How could he be so bothered to hang around his roommate when the guy had done nothing but be nice to him? Hell Keith even let him play with Thunder without asking anymore. It was a month into school and Lance felt like his room was a trap. He couldn’t go there to relax because Keith was always there; sitting there, smiling, laughing at Lance’s jokes,   
and wanting to talk to Lance.

Why was Keith always there? Did he have other friends? Except Lance didn’t want him to have other friends. 

That is so messed up.

But back to Lance freaking out over his roommate being a literal angel! Lance had never expected it, but everything that Keith did made Lance’s chest tighten. There must be something wrong with him. Or Keith.

Maybe their air conditioner was poisoning them. That’s reasonable, it happens. Right?

Except it doesn’t happen and Lane is just spiraling into his mattress trying to ignore the fact that Keith was hunched over his desk, pencil scratching against paper. His headphones tucked into his ugly mullet and Lance didn’t have to look to know that Keith’s tongue would be slightly sticking out in concentration. 

Lance wasn’t looking. He kept his eyes on his phone screen, scrolling through apps until Hunk finishes his homework and offers asylum in his room for a few hours.  
Keith hasn’t said a word in an hour, so when he does speak up Lance jumps and almost drops his phone off of his bed. It doesn’t take him long to realize that he didn’t understand a word that Keith had just said, “Huh?”

“I was asking if you knew what movie Pidge had picked for tonight.”

‘Oh fuck’ Lance thought. It wasn’t Hunk and Lance night, it was friend movie night. Realizing that Keith was still waiting for an answer Lance popped his head around the corner so that they would be looking at each other while talking. “They had mentioned something about The Little Shop of Horrors. Don’t know what that is but I’m assuming it’s an old syfy movie.”

Lance had forgotten that Keith’s desk was so close to the wall that half separated their sides of the room, Keith was positioned so that he was barely a foot away from Lance. Their faces were so close that Lance noticed the grey in Keith’s eyes, and Lance could smell the body soap that Keith had used in the shower after his run this morning.  
Fuck.

“I know it’s Pidge’s turn to pick the movie but honestly I was hoping for something more up to date and with real horror, even though Hunk would have nightmares. I haven’t had the opportunity to watch a real horror movie in so long because of him.” Lance’s voice was louder than usual…which was saying something, but Keith didn’t seem to notice, instead he sat down his pencil and leaned back in his chair, looking comfortable and relaxed, and…

“We could watch a horror movie together. I love watching them and dissecting them as it goes. If that doesn’t bother you.” Keith said as if his words meant nothing.

Lance could feel his face start to blush so he quickly looked down at his phone, realizing that Hunk had texted him a few minutes ago and he hadn’t even noticed. “Sure, we should do that.” He said without really thinking about what he was agreeing to, “Hunk says that him and Pidge are all ready and that there’s no one in the kitchen so we can watch the movie in there if we want to.”

Keith stood up, Thunder looking at him with interest in her eyes, “Yea, that gives more room for Thunder to roam around if she wants to.” He grabbed her blanket and water bowl from the ground and her tail began to wag. “Wanna go watch a movie?” he asked as he reached for her collar to attach a small leash. 

Lance looked away from his roommate to look at his own room to think about what he was going to bring to movie night. He had already told Pidge that he would bring the popcorn, he reached inside his nightstand a grabbed a few bags and then decided to bring his extra blanket and large lion plushie. If he was going to be sitting in the kitchen chairs for two hours he was going to be comfortable. 

He barely noticed when Keith reached for his waistband and dropped his sweats to the ground, opting to pull on a pair of basketball shorts.

It was only recently that Keith was confident enough to change in front of Lance, and this may have been one of the reasons that Lance had discovered his chaotic feelings. But the way that Keith’s basketball shorts hung on his ass was another one of those reasons.

FUCK.  
-  
When the two roommates got to the kitchen Hunk and Pidge were already there, and they had already claimed the two single comfy chairs. Leaving either the hard plastic, or the double chair…

When Keith sat down in the double chair without thought Lance’s heart did a back flip. When his attention drifted from the movie he was consciously too aware of Keith’s legs against his. They had both gotten cold shortly into the start of the movie, so Lance had offered his blanket to Keith. Instead of sitting next to Lance and letting the blanket lay across his torso, Keith opted to lean against the opposite end of the couch and pull his legs onto cushions and lightly press them into Lance’s thighs.

Keith’s legs were warm to the touch and were shockingly pale compared to the rest of him.

Obviously he didn’t wear shorts too often. But damn did he wear them well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Has anyone seen 'The Little Shop of Horrors'? gosh I love that movie it's so cheesy.  
> "Feed me Seymore"


	10. A lazy Saturday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance and Keith spend a lazy saturday studying and comming up with ideas for Halloween decoration.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> slight mention of a slip towards forgetting to eat towards the end

September was almost over before Keith accepted the fact that he thought his roommate was hot. He did not; however, accept the fact that he may have feelings for said roommate. In fact, he kept those thoughts buried deep deep down.

“You know what we should do?” Lance asked from his side of the room, he was supposed to be studying, but for the past few minutes, he had been laying on the ground, notecards beside him forgotten phone in hand.

Keith was studying, well sort of studying. He was just rereading his lecture notes from today and idlily sketching something to keep his mind from going numb. “What should we do?” Keith said without lifting his eyes off of his desk.

Lance sat up and turned his whole body towards Keith, “We should decorate our room and door for Halloween!” 

Keith looked up from his drawing now and saw the excited look on Lance’s face, “I think I heard Allura say something about a door decorating contest in the hall. I guess we could enter.”

Somehow, Keith wasn’t sure how, Lance’s face lit up even more, “We’re not only going to enter, we’re going to win that contest!” Lance was already standing up and covering the distance between them, grabbing Keith’s shoulder and dragging him onto Keith’s bed so that they could look on Lance’s phone together.

Keith’s cheeks burned and he tilted his head so that his hair could cover most of his face. Thunder looked up from her place on the floor, she had been laying next to Keith’s feet. She stood up and stared at the two sitting on his bed.

Keith, thankful for a distraction from Lance being pressed into him, gratefully motioned for Thunder to jump up on the bed and lay on the two of them. Lance didn’t mind, he was used to it. Sometimes if Keith was gone too long during the day he would welcome her into his bed so she wasn’t lonely.

But Thunder wasn’t too much of a distraction like Keith thought. He could still feel Lance’s thigh pressed up against his own, and his head was almost resting on Lance’s shoulder. “I’ll grab my laptop so that the screen is bigger.” He managed to choke out. Quickly he leaned away from Lance and over Thunder and grabbed his laptop off of his bedside table and opened it. 

They sat a little further apart now that there was in fact, a bigger screen between them, but Keith could have sworn that Lance was leaning into him.

They stayed like that long enough that the shadows on the wall disappeared and the room grew completely dark around them.  
-  
What seemed like thirty minutes turned out to be two hours and Lance’s neck was stiff, but his chest was about to burst. He could feel his heart beating so fast he wasn’t sure that   
Keith couldn’t feel it. 

Speaking off Keith, he was leaning against the wall, one leg supported the laptop, the other leg was thrown across Lance’s own leg, propping it up. He said that it had gone numb but that didn’t help the fire that started in his heart. 

This boy was going to kill him. 

But it had been his fault really, Lance had dragged Keith onto his bed and demanded to sit next to him, it was only when Thunder grew bored and jumped back down to her bed that Keith seemed to want to move practically on top of Lance.

Lance didn’t know what to do but he didn’t move. He was afraid that it would stop, that Keith would move.

When they finally did get their door and room planned and sketched out, thanks to Keith’s artful eye, Keith shifted and leaned away from Lance.

“We should ask Allura when the contest starts and if there are any rules. And then we can go to the dollar store for most of our stuff to save money.” Keith cracked his neck and then stretched his arms, revealing a white strip of skin above his waistband.

Keith doesn’t walk around the room without a shirt on, he said that it’s always too cold to, but even when he changes he either does it in the bathroom after his shower, or while Lance is gone. He’s too shy.

Lance isn’t. hasn’t cared. It’s his room he can change and be how he wants to be, but he doesn’t want to make Keith uncomfortable, so the amount of shirtless Lance has dwindled, Keith’s face turned too red, probably not used to so much skin.

Lance felt bad for that, “Yea, I’ll text her.”

 

A few minutes later there was a knock on their door and Lance stood up to open it for their RL. “Lance, Keith, I heard you want to sign up for the door decorating contest.”

Keith stood up from his bed so that he wasn’t the only one sitting, “Yea, Lance thought it would be fun. Is there a sheet to fill out? And a rule guide.”

“Yes to a sheet, but no to a guide. You can only put things up with painters tape and nothing with noise.” She swung her long silver hair over her shoulder and opened a folder that Lance was just now realizing she came in with. “You just need to put your names and room number on this and you’re all good. Decorating starts on the 1st and everything must be down by the 5th of November.”

“That’s easy enough,” Lance said with a smirk and signed his name on the line she indicated, there were only three other rooms signed up so far. Maybe he could convince Hunk and Pidge to sign up too. Make it a contest between friends.

Keith stepped forward and wrote his name next to Lance’s and wrote down their room number. “Thank you.” He said, Keith felt awkward, well he always felt awkward, but he had never really spoken to Allura for longer than a few seconds so as she stood there expecting more from the two of them he felt his hands get clammy and his mind started to stall.

Lance said something but Keith’s mind had already started to tune everything out, he was only aware of when Allura left because he heard the door close, and then Lance’s hand was on his shoulder and he looked concerned, “Are you ok?”

Keith looked up from the spot on the floor that he had been staring at and at Lance’s chest, he didn’t want to look at his face, “Yea, just zoned out. I’m fine.”

Lance didn’t seem to believe him, but he didn’t say anything. He also didn’t say anything when Keith crawled into his bed and motioned for Thunder to jump up with him.

It was quiet in their room for a long time, Lance had gone back to studying and he had assumed that Keith had fallen asleep, this wouldn’t be the first time he had slept like that before. But when Keith reached for his phone and groaned Lance looked up from his study spot on the floor. “Good nap?” he asked, unsure if Keith was still in his mood.  
Thunder jumped down from the bed and over to her bowl.

Keith propped himself up on an elbow, his mullet sticking up in every direction, Lance tried to think of it as not cute. He failed.

“I didn’t mean to sleep. Now I don’t know if I can go to bed early enough tonight, and that means no morning run.”

“I can work out with you after classes tomorrow if you want. We can go to the rec, I can’t really run fast and wouldn’t want to slow you down, but I don’t mind going with you.” Lance started to put his notecards away, if he didn’t know it by now then there was no point in studying anymore.

Keith ran a hand through his hair, again causing a slip of pale skin to be seen along his waistband. 

“That would be great. I’m sure Thunder will appreciate not running tomorrow. And that makes the rest of my week a little easier.” They were silent for a couple minutes until Keith’s stomach rumbled.

“Hungry?”

“Apparently,” Keith said, and he glanced over at the shelves above their mini fridge. His side was lacking. Shiro had told him to buy more groceries, but Keith said that he wouldn’t need him. What an idiot past him was. “Do you want to go with me to grab something?”

Lance looked at his phone and saw that it was after 11. “What is even open at this time of night?”

“Wataburger, Taco Bell, McDonalds, and maybe Sonic. That’s it.”

“I can text Hunk and ask if him and Pidge want to go with us.”

“Why not.” Keith stood up from his bed, his shirt looked too big on him. 

Maybe Lance should be paying attention to how much Keith eats. He was sure that his shirt fit better at the beginning of the month. And he was pretty sure he didn’t see Keith eat anything all day today. It was Saturday and neither one of them really left the room for anything so Lance would have seen him grab something.

Maybe he should ask Keith’s brother Shiro.

Lance’s phone dinged.

Hunk: Pidge said ‘Fuck YES WATABURGER AT MIDNIGHT’

Lance: Ok good, let’s make sure Keith eats his whole meal, he’s looking skinny.

Hunk: I’ve noticed too man.

Hunk: Did he have lunch?

Lance: Not sure, but I know we both didn’t have dinner. We got preoccupied with Halloween stuff.

Hunk: IT’S STILL SEPTEMBER and dude, I don’t need to lecture both of you :/

Lance: 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> to make up for the months absence here's twice the length than normal, but also a building up of upcoming angst.


	11. Monday Blues

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith has an off day and Lance worries about him

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SOOOO part of the last chapter aparently wont upload, i'm adding it to the begging to this chapter  
> Keith's depression makes an appearance, and I'm sorry if this isn't all right, but this is how my depression manifests itself. I sleep and become unaware of life outside my mind

There was a knock at the door and Lance opened it before Keith could, he had just stepped out of the bathroom in his pants instead of pajamas. Lance didn’t care, pjs at midnight are perfectly acceptable clothing.

“I could eat everything from Wataburger right now and none of you mothafuckers could stop me.” Pidge said in a large jacket, their headphones were around their neck and their hair was even crazier than Keith’s.

“Sorry, I mumbled to myself about food and Pidge, who I thought was asleep, jumped up and accused me of getting food without them and now they’re upset.” Hunk said with a smile, Pidge only glared from behind their hair, but they smiled when Thunder came up to them.

Keith squatted down next to Thunder and nudged her, “Want to go? Go ride?” she only looked at him and laid down. “No ride, got it.” He stood up and caught Lance’s eye. Lance had been staring at the shirt that Keith hadn’t bothered to change out of. It sure did seem baggier than normal.

“I’ll drive.” Lance said, turning around before Keith could ask him anything.

-

When Lance was little he had a friend that lived close to him. They would meet halfway between their houses and play in the dirt, and when they got older they would meet in town and bum around the shops. It was nothing special. He knew that his friend was nice and came from a loving family, but they never really talked about their families…well, Lance talked about his family of course, how could you get around that big of a subject.

But his friend never told stories of his siblings or parents. Lance wasn’t sure if his friend even had grandparents living with him. Lance had thought that it was normal for grandparents to live with their family. 

When the two boys were almost 16 his friend suddenly decided that he didn’t want to meet Lance in town anymore. Lance never saw him again. He doesn’t know if the boy moved out of Cuba, or if he just avoided his childhood friend who Lance thought was a best friend. after that Lance made sure to get to know his friends close and care for them with small gestures. He was sure that if he could have cared for that skinny Cuban boy back home he could have still been friends with him.

Lance didn’t want to lose a friend again.  
-  
When Lance wakes the next day he’s surprised to see that Keith is not in the room, and neither is Thunder. He distinctly remembers Keith saying that he wasn’t going to go running today because he was staying up so late. The four of them didn’t actually go to bed until close to three a.m. it’s only 8 right now. 

There’s no reason for Lance to be awake, but here he is. At least he’s in bed.

Keith should be in bed too. For a brief moment, an image of Keith in Lance’s bed flickers through his mind but he quickly dismisses it and worry bubbles up in its place. He also remembers Keith saying that he had an exam coming up. Maybe he’s stressed more than normal and needs to get it out through running.

Lance looks at the other half of the room that is empty without Keith’s presence. Keith shouldn’t have to push himself so hard.

Lance gets out of bed and shuffles towards the bathroom, unable to keep himself in bed any longer, try as he might. When Lance flickers on the lights he is taken aback. The floor is covered in Keith’s sleeping clothes…ok, so that doesn’t sound so bad. But after living with someone for two months there are certain things that become second nature, noticing Keith’s compulsive nature to clean and keep his room tidy is something that just is…a mess floor seems out of place and stressful.

Slowly Lance bends down and picks up Keith’s clothes and neatly folds them before placing them on his roommate’s bed, which is unmade, also out of character.  
If they literally didn’t sleep less than five feet away from each other Lance would say that someone kidnapped Keith.

Keith doesn’t come back to the room until almost eight, three hours before his first class. At least Lance knows that he wasn’t abducted. His hair is dripping in sweat and his shirt looks black even though Lance knows that it’s grey. Thunder goes immediately to her bed and lays down without even a look in Lance’s direction. 

Lance tries to say something to his roommate, but the bathroom door slams shut before he can say anything. Great.

Keith showers for an hour.

A literal hour.

This boy typically showers for no more than ten minutes.

Lance is about to have a panic attack and rip down the bathroom door and have a heart to heart with emo John Stamos. Instead, he sits down at his desk and starts writing.  
-  
Keith doesn’t say anything to Lance when he leaves the bathroom, he walks right out of the shower, towel around his hips, wet hair now clean, and doesn’t even bother to put on clothes. Instead, he lays down on his bed and instantly falls asleep.

Lance feels like he’s going to burst, not only for seeing a shirtless Keith (because OMG did that boy have the perfect chest) but because Keith wasn’t wearing clothes, and he didn’t seem bothered by that. Normally Keith blushes over everything; yet, today he just strolled out naked save a thin towel and went to sleep.

Maybe he should call Keith’s brother, what was his name again? Shiro? Yea if Keith is still weird after class he’ll let Shiro know. He would want his brother’s helping him, surely Keith does too.  
-  
Classes lasted too long that day, and Lance knew why. He needed to know how Keith was doing. Did he even go to class? Lance really wishes that he did.

When Lance told hunk about Keith’s weird behavior he didn’t seem too worried. Hunk had said that maybe Keith was just now relaxing about sharing his room. He might be a dirty person and like to walk around without his shirt but he had to get used to it first. Lance still wasn’t convinced.

Pidge had barely paid attention at lunch to his worrying about Keith, they were too preoccupied with some gadget they were tinkering with. But as Lance spoke the lines in their forehead grew deeper.

Finally, when Lance was finished with his classes for the day he practically ran back to his room. Stopping just in front of their shared door to catch his breath.  
When Lance did open the door, his stomach fell. 

There Keith was, still asleep on his bed, the blanket hanging onto him just enough to show that he had not gotten up at all to get dressed or properly dry his hair. Thunder was curled up next to him, her eyes asked Lance a question but he couldn’t guess at what she was asking.

Lance debated waking up Keith, he didn’t know if he would get mad at him or not, but if he continued to sleep he wouldn’t sleep tonight. After tossing his backpack onto his own bed, Lance walked quietly over to where the pale, lanky boy lay motionless. God, he felt so awkward. And Lance never felt awkward.

“Keith?” he said gently, not wanting to startle the other boy awake.

He doesn’t even stir, so Lance decides to be a little louder and still no response from the sleeping boy. So Lance decides to put his hand on Keith’s shoulder, ignoring the butterflies in his stomach from touching him, and gently shake him awake, “Keith, buddy, time to wake up.”

Finally, there’s a groan from a now scrunched up face, one hand comes up to cover his eyes, and the other to grab at the hand on his shoulder. Keith holds it in his own for a moment, before moving his other hand and seeing who is standing beside him. “Oh.”

His voice is hoarse and he scoots away from Lance’s touch, “Keith?”

“Sorry, Shiro would wake me up like that when I was younger and having bad dreams. I thought I was still sleeping…What time is it?” now Keith seemed to notice his nakedness, covered graciously by his comforter, and blushed harder than Lance had ever seen, his chest blossomed red and with his hair wild he could tell that the tips of his ears turned red too.

Cute.

“It’s almost 1:30, you fell asleep at 9. I had to go to class and I thought you would wake yourself up. I guess you missed class?” he ended the sentence on a question because he didn’t want to sound like he was reprimanding Keith. 

“Shit.” Keith cursed quietly under his breath, then louder, “I don’t even remember falling asleep.”

Lance looked at him wide-eyed, “Really?”

“Well I remember going for a run,-”

“Which you said you wouldn’t do.” Lance interrupted.

Keith ignored him and kept going, “I think I ran maybe 11 miles, I made it to Shiro’s apartment at one point. I thought about going in but I didn’t want to trouble him. I thought  
I would bother him somehow. And then I came back and took a long shower that felt great.”

Keith looked up at Lance, who was a head taller than him given their current situation if Keith were dressed Lance would sit in bed with him and try to have this conversation on the same level. Instead, he decided that standing above Keith was going to have to work for now, “Are you ok man?” he started nervously.

Keith brought the blanket higher up around him and Lance noticed how uncomfortable he seemed. Quickly Lance bent down and grabbed Keith’s discarded night clothes and turned his back so that his roommate could get dressed. Neither of them said anything while Keith was shrugging on his clothes. And when Keith said that Lance could turn back around there was another blush on his face. 

“I don’t know,” Keith said after a very long pause.

Lance didn’t push him, instead, he decided to grab Keith’s desk chair and swing it around so that he could lean forward and rest his arms on the back of it. “Want to talk about it?”  
This was never a question that people liked to answer. And if they did want to talk about it, it was always hard for them to start talking. But when Keith answered almost immediately, Lance was still ready. “I don’t know that either. I think you know that I have some issues. Thunder helps with most of it. But sometimes I get too drawn into my thoughts and I overthink everything and I make myself like this.” He gestured to himself like there was something visibly wrong with him, which there wasn’t. “I want to tell you I’m fine but I’m not a very good liar and I count you as a friend and for now…I want to just ignore today. If you don’t mind?” Keith sounded uncertain like he was afraid that Lance would reject that and him. 

But Lance just sat upright in the chair and nodded his head, “Sounds like a plan to me buddy. I’m here any time you need me and even if you don’t want to talk I’m told I make a mean cuddler. Just ask Hunk.”

After the words were out of his mouth Lance felt a blush creep up his neck, but the soft smile that crept on Keith’s face was worth it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading this and I know this fic is supposed to be pure fluff... but I want the build up of Klance to take a little bit longer. but once these two boys get together you're all going to get cavities by how sweet it'll be


	12. Picture Perfect

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now who has social media?? and a quick Hunk and Lance best friend scene

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's been a while. I just started Grad school and an internship at the same time so that something....  
> also I know this is shorter than normal, I just wanted to get a chapter out to you guys before I leave you hanging for too long. :)

“Keith give me your phone.” Keith looked up from his new phone, puzzled and dazed. He had been looking at the shiny new screen for the past ten minutes trying to figure out all of the applications. Where was the texting?

Oh crap he was calling someone now.

Quickly he tossed the phone to Lance who managed to end the call just as quickly and throw a smirk in Keith’s general direction. “Now come here. I’ll show you how to set some things up and navigate it.”

Keith looked at Lance was he was joking, but slowly made his way over to where Lance was sitting on the edge of his bright blue bed spread. “I can figure it out for myself.” Keith said indigently. 

“But this way I can download all the apps you’ll need, like snapchat, insta, Facebook, Tumblr, canvas, Spotify,…” Lance looked up and saw the blank look on his roommates face and chuckled. “Ok. I’ll download them and show you how to use them as we go.”

“Why do I even need social media? I’m perfectly fine without it.” 

“Because this is 2018, aaannndd this way you can stay looped in on our group conversations without Hunk having to pull out his phone and show you. Come on. It’ll be fun.” Keith consented, and Lance grabbed his phone out of his hand, their fingers softly brushing against one another’s before quickly jerking away. Keith could feel the blush in his cheeks long before they had touched, but it certainly didn’t go away the longer they sat next to each other. “Ok,” Lance spoke for the first time in a few minutes, “I have the major ones downloaded and all I need from you is a profile picture for some of them and then you can put stuff in your bio’s and all the personal stuff you want to.”

“Profile picture?” Keith leaned away from the phone like it would bite him. “Why do I have to have one? Don’t some people just not do that?”

“Yes some people do that, but I am going to take a picture for you so that it’ll turn out good no matter what.” Keith made a face and Lance thought of something, “Or I could just   
ask Shiro for a picture of you…I’m sure as an older brother he would pick out the *best* photo of you.”

The judging look behind the mullet quickly faded away and was replaced with fear, “You wouldn’t.”

“Not if you smile.” Keith muttered something under his breath, but Lance didn’t care, he was too busy getting into something he loved to do…take pictures of people. He loved to be their hype man. It gave him so much energy to get people excited and full of happiness and purpose. 

All of that went away when Keith brushed his bangs away from his eyes and smiled in Lance’s direction…Fuck.

“Like this?” the little fucker asked…Keith…Keith asked.

Lance quickly looked down and through the phone screen, still seeing the breathtaking photo that was Keith smiling. “Yeah, perfect.” Lance took the photo before Keith could waiver and then gestured at Thunder. “Why don’t you take a photo of the both of y’all, show her off.”

Again, Keith smiled and if Lance thought the last photo was something he was clearly thrown off guard when Thunder jumped onto the bed, placing her head across Keith’s legs and Keith leaned down and laid across her back. It was like he was born to do this. How was he so photogenic without even trying? 

Lance took the photo and Keith jerked, “Wait I wasn’t ready yet!”

The lovestruck boy almost threw the new phone.  
\--  
Later that night Hunk made his way over and he went straight for Thunder, giving her a good pet before standing behind Keith and looking over his shoulder. He knew to not interrupt the black-haired boy while he was drawing, he just liked to watch occasionally. Lance sat up from where he was half hanging off of his bed and waved his childhood best friend over to his side of the room, He was scrolling through his Instagram feed, but he kept going back to one picture…he had a problem, he really did.  
Hunk looked at his phone and raised an eyebrow, “So?”

Lance narrowed his eyes and exited the app and looked away from the friend sitting beside him, “So nothing. Don’t mention it. It’s nothing.” His voice did definitely not just crack.

Hunk rolled his eyes, “Why not just ask him to send you the photo so you could have it as a contact photo?” he suggested it like it was that easy.

But wait…maybe it was that easy. However, if he was going to ask Keith for that candid photo he took earlier he was going to need a comfort food when his hopes would be crushed. “If we go to the store I’ll chip in for ingredients.”

“What kind?” Hunk sat down on the bed and took out his phone.

“Blueberry coconut.” Lance sat up completely.

“Size?” Hunk’s fingers quickly typed on the screen.

“Normal.” Lance leaned around the wall, gripping the edge of his bed so that he wouldn’t fall.

“Us?” Hunk looked up from his phone in time to grab Lance’s shoulder and stop the wobble before it escalated into something worse.

“All 4.” Lance tapped Keith’s desk with his phone, just barely reaching, Hunk still holding onto him carefully.

Keith looked up from his notebook and took off his headphones, a small smile hiding behind his eyes, “What’s up?”

“We’re going to the store to get ingredients for monster blueberry cookies with coconut flour for the four of us. Want to come?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always thank you for reading. With all the new stress in my life I needed a quick piece of fluff from Klance


End file.
